"oneworld" award (132.4K/249.6K/318K/455K) Planning - The Definitive Thread

[robbegong]

No refund, I'm afraid you have misunderstood my post.

Perhaps I should have said: 'that line only reflects the taxes & surcharges for the latest change/addition; not the total of all taxes and surcharges'.

Put another way, if you add up that line from each variation of your ticket, that is the total taxes and surcharges you have paid.

Clear as mud.

Thanks, that makes sense.. kind of!

 

[robbegong]

Hi all I've been reading through this forum for quite some time and slowly planning my OWA J redemption. Plan is to travel in April 2021 with my wife and son who will be 18 months old at the time.

The plan is do the following:

SYD - SIN
SIN - LHR
LHR - YYZ
YYZ - JFK - will likely drive down and not include in award
JFK - HKG
HGK - SYD

Taxes look to be around $1,300 per person which isn't too bad. Although we could do CDG to YYZ to avoid the LHR airport taxes, it wouldn't be worth it once we add in the additional cost to get down to CDG and then the added stopover in LHR anwyay on the way to YYZ!

I've been looking for alternate routes to come back home from JFK to SYD but HKG looks to be the best option unless I can find availability through another US city. Aim would be to find flights with the least amount of flying time given we will be travelling with an 18 month old...

Would love to hear any feedback or other possible suggestions on my proposed itinerary! Cheers!

It looks great! I would also consider Japan Airlines through Tokyo for the way back. They release availability at 360 days out and can be booked by Qantas at that point, which gives us people using QFF a bit of a headstart over most other Oneworld programs that don’t allow bookings that far in advance.

Note: edited to correct that JL releases availability 360 days out.

 

[Cerveza]

It looks great! I would also consider Japan Airlines through Tokyo for the way back. They release availability at 365 days out and can be booked by Qantas at that point, which gives us people using QFF a bit of a headstart over most other Oneworld programs that don’t allow bookings that far in advance.

Thanks for the feedback and great point! I'm not too fussed about which way we come home so this is definately an option! Do you see any risk with booking the last leg of the journey as the first flight given the rest of the seats won't be released (I'm a QF bronze)?

 

[Maki]

Have you looked at transiting via KIX or MNL? Depending on your travel dates, you may have better luck there.

Thanks Jacques Vert! I'm looking at flights for 2 pax early March, between 7 and 9 March. QF has no availability at all out of KIX, alternative options available in J are all via PVG and then on QF130.
MNL is on the radar too, the only available J option there is via DXB, the long way. I have HKG on the radar too.

 

[cjd600]

Thanks for the feedback and great point! I'm not too fussed about which way we come home so this is definately an option! Do you see any risk with booking the last leg of the journey as the first flight given the rest of the seats won't be released (I'm a QF bronze)?

No issues at all.
Worth noting JL release to QF @ 360 days, not 365 as quoted above (in case you are stalking the release to the minute).
Also beware married segments (I was awaiting LAX-NRT-SYD and had to wait an extra day for the NRT-SYD release and book both legs in one go, as when booking LAX-NRT immediately it wasn't allowing to then add NRT-SYD on the following day, when released)

 

[DC3]

... any risk with booking the last leg of the journey as the first flight given the rest of the seats won't be released ...

I find it best to book as soon as availability opens. Waiting may probably mean losing those seats. Fill in the gaps the same way.

 

[Cerveza]

No issues at all.
Worth noting JL release to QF @ 360 days, not 365 as quoted above (in case you are stalking the release to the minute).
Also beware married segments (I was awaiting LAX-NRT-SYD and had to wait an extra day for the NRT-SYD release and book both legs in one go, as when booking LAX-NRT immediately it wasn't allowing to then add NRT-SYD on the following day, when released)

Ok noted however the time gap between all of my flights will be a minimum of 2 days so would married segments still be an issue?

 

[Kyah Hester]

Hey guys,

Just a last minute update on my previous issues. I started trying to book my last flights on Saturday. At about 12pm yesterday, after being on the phone for 2.5 hours (to a very helpful lady) they were finally booked.

She troubleshooted the actual issue:
Miles = fine
Timing = fine
Stopovers = fine
Sectors = apparently the system was counting 18 sectors because somehow it was counting my name as flight1 and my partners name as flight2. It took her a LOT of effort to fix. But nonetheless it was a fix she could do over the phone for me. The incompetency of all previous qantas people was absurd. I'm so glad its over and I don't have to chase this any longer.

Totalled in at just over 4k in taxes. 280k points upheld due to grandfathering from previous booking. Tickets were re-issued whilst on the phone.

After all this time our OWA is finally complete. For those who are curious - I feel like I've maximised the value out of the award...
Stopover 1: DEL
DBO-SYD-HKG-DEL

Stopover 2: AMM
DEL-DOH-AMM

Stopover 3: CAI
AMM-CAI

Stopover 4: FCO
CAI-AMM-FCO

Stopover 5: CUN
FCO-DOH-JFK-DFW-CUN

Return home to startpoint: DBO
CUN-PHX-LAX-SYD-DBO

Thanks to all who helped out!

 

[soh]

Tried to make what should have been a quick change yesterday and turned into an epic exercise. Not started my first sector yet on my 280k award and availability in J popped up for an AKL-HKG that I currently held in W. First call back and the CSO had never heard of a oneworld classic flight reward. Talked her through the change and she advised it would be >100k extra points and 4NZD in tax. She couldn't answer why it was no longer capped at 280k so HUACA. Second call and CSO had heard of it. She would only charge the 5k change fee but it was $250NZD extra tax. Got through to SMS service and on the second attempt after 2 hours it was booked for 5k points and 4NZD. The QF SMS survey then popped before I could ask for immediate ticketing. Been burned with this before so back onto SMS and messenger to push through the re ticketing. It shouldn't be this difficult....

 

[flapper]

Tried to make what should have been a quick change yesterday and turned into an epic exercise. Not started my first sector yet on my 280k award and availability in J popped up for an AKL-HKG that I currently held in W. First call back and the CSO had never heard of a oneworld classic flight reward. Talked her through the change and she advised it would be >100k extra points and 4NZD in tax. She couldn't answer why it was no longer capped at 280k so HUACA. Second call and CSO had heard of it. She would only charge the 5k change fee but it was $250NZD extra tax. Got through to SMS service and on the second attempt after 2 hours it was booked for 5k points and 4NZD. The QF SMS survey then popped before I could ask for immediate ticketing. Been burned with this before so back onto SMS and messenger to push through the re ticketing. It shouldn't be this difficult....

You think they would have scripting so all agents could look up OWA and read the basics at a glance. It’s not rocket science all CC have scripting.
I believe QF want it to be difficult to book rewards seats otherwise they would do something to make the experience easier.

 

[knightfall88]

Hi guys, I have semi-booked a oneworld classic where I am splitting into 2 holidays. I will be getting separate flights to/from Sydney between the holidays. In my separate flights back to Sydney, I'm booking that with points also but under a different booking to the oneworld classic obviously. There are no issues with this right? Since they are separate bookings?

 

[Ktan89]

Hi guys, I have semi-booked a oneworld classic where I am splitting into 2 holidays. I will be getting separate flights to/from Sydney between the holidays. In my separate flights back to Sydney, I'm booking that with points also but under a different booking to the oneworld classic obviously. There are no issues with this right? Since they are separate bookings?

No issues with this - separate bookings.

 

[robbegong]

Tried to make what should have been a quick change yesterday and turned into an epic exercise. Not started my first sector yet on my 280k award and availability in J popped up for an AKL-HKG that I currently held in W. First call back and the CSO had never heard of a oneworld classic flight reward. Talked her through the change and she advised it would be >100k extra points and 4NZD in tax. She couldn't answer why it was no longer capped at 280k so HUACA. Second call and CSO had heard of it. She would only charge the 5k change fee but it was $250NZD extra tax. Got through to SMS service and on the second attempt after 2 hours it was booked for 5k points and 4NZD. The QF SMS survey then popped before I could ask for immediate ticketing. Been burned with this before so back onto SMS and messenger to push through the re ticketing. It shouldn't be this difficult....

What concerns me about this story is how the tax amounts can be quoted so differently! How do you have any confidence you aren’t being overcharged on any given change?!

(Also concerning is how much of an ordeal it was, but that is fairly par for the course unfortunately!)

 

[soh]

What concerns me about this story is how the tax amounts can be quoted so differently! How do you have any confidence you aren’t being overcharged on any given change?!

(Also concerning is how much of an ordeal it was, but that is fairly par for the course unfortunately!)

The tax difference on a standalone sector between W and J was $20HKD on both ITA and when doing a dummy reward booking on QF. This is what the first operator also quoted so this was my anchor. Not sure if the entire booking had been repriced yesterday as this may result in a variation if the point of sale currency had moved up or down significantly since the original booking. I think this was put in the too hard basket and they didn't reprice.

 

[11sjw]

Probably more CX related than OWA related but it is part of my OWA so I'll put it here...

Logged on to check seating etc today (departure is in approx 4 weeks) and I notice that CX have moved Miss 11 and I to a centre pair (Mrs 11 departs 24 hrs earlier due to seat availability ex PER in CX J). I don't like this at all as I'd rather we're able to walk down the same aisle to our seats. It also allows me to be close to help my daughter with getting her bag (she's not quite 5 foot tall) into the overhead. Suffice to say I've moved us and will keep an eye on that during the next 4 weeks!

 

[DC3]

… I'd rather we're able to walk down the same aisle to our seats. It also allows me to be close to help my daughter with getting her bag (she's not quite 5 foot tall) into the overhead. Suffice to say I've moved us ...

Yes, it definitely pays to keep an eye on seat allocation. So, you will be across the aisle from each other?

 

[11sjw]

Yes, it definitely pays to keep an eye on seat allocation. So, you will be across the aisle from each other?

That is the result I'm aiming for. We are for now!

 

[motef]

Isn’t it funny that it is so difficult to book one of these awards that when you ring QF to add some flights to an existing booking and the consultant says “ahhh it looks like your building a OneWorld award, I know all about that and can definitely help you” that you breath such a sigh of relief.

He was happy to stay on the line until it was ticketed, sorted out some issues on the taxes and then waived the 5k points per pax change fee because I had to hold for a while.

 

[soh]

Isn’t it funny that it is so difficult to book one of these awards that when you ring QF to add some flights to an existing booking and the consultant says “ahhh it looks like your building a OneWorld award, I know all about that and can definitely help you” that you breath such a sigh of relief.

He was happy to stay on the line until it was ticketed, sorted out some issues on the taxes and then waived the 5k points per pax change fee because I had to hold for a while.

Did you get his mobile number...

 

[DC3]

.... He was happy to stay on the line until it was ticketed, sorted out some issues on the taxes and then waived the 5k points per pax change fee because I had to hold for a while.

Did you get his mobile number...

Name, Call Centre location, phone number or it didn’t happen.